Interview: Nadia Atique talks modest wear at Graduate Fashion Week

Nadia Atique showcased her Liverpool Football Club-inspired modest wear designs at Graduate Fashion Week. This football collection was a tribute to her late father, who loved football.

Nadia is a fashion student at Liverpool John Moores University. She talked to us at Graduate Fashion Week about her collection, her inspirations and her future goals.

"Initially, when I started looking at concepts for my designs, I knew that I wanted to focus it on Liverpool Football Club, purely because I was born and raised around there and my father was a massive football fan," she says.

"Unfortunately, he passed away ten years ago. It would’ve been the tenth anniversary, so to pay homage to him, I wanted to focus on football."

She had created nine different outfits for Graduate Fashion Week. Some of the pieces are dedicated to players, manager, fans and goalies.

“I did hundreds of designs, and these were the top nine that we selected, between me and my tutors,” she explains.

And it paid off, as her designs earned her runner-up in for the Tessuti Sports and Leisurewear Award.

“It’s been a great experience. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster, but in the end, it was worth the tears and the long nights and the sleepless nights,” she said about the past few months.

Nadia hopes her work with modest wear will help break down stereotypes surrounding Muslim women. She explains:

“There still is a stigma, whether people like to believe it or not, around the hijab and Muslim women. We are put in a box, and coming out of that is why I want to be a modest wear designer, to break those stereotypes. We are just normal, like every other girl out there. We like fun things, we like colour, we like to experiment, but within our barriers.”

As for Nadia's future design and career plans, she tells us she has an open mind. She said she would enjoy travelling and working to break stereotypes in other parts of the world as well.

“I feel like there’s a need. Muslim women need that empowerment. And there will be Muslim women who don’t agree with me, but there’s always going to be someone who isn’t going to agree. I just have to do what I feel is right for me.”